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Archive for the Category »Antalya «
Patara was one of the major harbours of Lykia in ancient times. According to inscriptions and coins, its name in the Lykian language is “Pttara”. The city, as Heredot states, is supposed to have existed in the 5th century B.C. The temple and oracle of Apollo in Patara attracted great attention in the Middle Ages. According to Delphi, Patara was the second most important oracle. During Alexander’s advance towards the east the city opened its doors to him, and during the war between Alexander’s generals Patara played a great role as a naval port. In 190 B.C. Antiochos II conquered the city and the city then came under Roman rule. The greatly travelled Roman emperor Hadrian, once stopped at Patara with his wife.
Places of Interest
The ruins of Patara are scattered over a large area, some being under masses of sand, and it is rather difficult to get to them.
The city may have been entered through a three-arched gate (100 A.D.). There is a Corinthian temple in quite a good condition, 200m to the south; it also has a high portal, all of which are from the 2nd century A.D. Further to the south lie the ruins of the Vespasian baths. At the south-east part, between the sea and the swamp is the theatre (2nd century A.D.), which is the best protected building of Patara, its stage building and audience chamber being completely covered with sand. On the hill by the theatre is a cistern; 700m north-west of the theatre by the other side of the ancient harbour, is the granary of Hadrian, with the surface dimensions of 67×20m, and divided into 8 rooms of equivalent sizes. The necropolis of the city with hundreds of Lykian-style sarcophagi, is to the east andwest of the city gate.
The province of Antalya was known as Pamphylia in antiquity. In the 12th century B.C. Achaeans came from Greece and colonized the whole region. Antalya achieved historical importance later. In the 2nd century B.C. the city was established by the Pergamonian king Attalos II. Later it was integrated into the Roman province of Asia. Here, the apostles St. Paul and St. Barnabas caused Christianity to become widespread. During the reign of Hadrian strong walls were constructed around the city. In the 9th century A.D. the Byzantines fortified the city with a new wall because of the encroachment of Arabs. During the Second Crusade in the 12th century, Antalya was a rallying point for the Crusaders. In 1207 the city was captured by Seljuks, and later it was annexed to the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Sultan Murat I in the 14th century. In 1918, Italians occupied Antalya and the surrounding area and invaded as far north as Konya. In 1921 after a treaty, the Italian troops were withdrawn. In return for leaving Anatolia, the Italians gained economical concessions.
We know nothing of the earliest history of Side. Althouge the geographer Strabo described it as a colony of Cyme, the name cf the town has a Anatolian, pre-Greek sound cf. Sidenh in Ionia and Sidyma in Lycia. In its early days it shared the common fate of Pamphylia, and after the fall of the Lydian kingdom it became part of the Persian Empire under which it seems to have enjoyed relative independence since it had its own mint and struck its own silver coins. Side welcomed Alexander unhesitatingly. After his death it became the subject of numerous disputes among his successors, the Seleucids and Ptolemies. In 190 B.C. a great naval battle was fought off Side between the Syrian and Rhodian fleets. After the peace of Apamea in 188 B.C. Side, together with the rest of Pamphylia, was incorporated in the Kingdom of Pergamum.
The period that followed was one of great prosperity: the town’s currency was widespread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. But the Cilician pirates put an end to its rise and it was not until the Romans came that the port of Side again became busy. The 2nd century and the first half of the 3rd century A.D. were a new period of prosperity for Side, marked by a great development in building. The incursions of the Isaurian mountain people brought a return of hard times. Christianity spread in the 4th century when the town was rather poor and had been driven back behind new ramparts. The 5th and 6th centuries were again a prosperous period, with more building, but in the 7th century the Arab incursions devastated the Pamphylian coast.
Nevertheless, the town survived until about 1000 A.D. As late as the Byzantine period it was still mentioned as a bishop’s see, but it declined completely during the 12th century. At the end of the 12th century, the Arab geographer Edrisi called it the “burnt Antalya”. “Formerly flourishing and densely populated”, it was at that time “sparsely inhabited” and “fallen into ruins”. In 1900, a small measure of life was restored to the town when a village of muhacirs settled from Selimiye in Crete on the site of the ancient town; the original geometrical layout of this village can still be discerned although it is now almost obliterated by the addition to the original houses of one-roomed dwellings for the refugees.
About 4 km before we cross the river, a track branches off the main road on the right; here and there along it we can see the ruins of the aqueduct that carried the waters of the Melas to the town.